Always Further Than You Think
by Cheeky-eyes
Summary: Juudai hadn't been aware they even were blackberry bushes on the island, a fact he was all too familiar with now as he tried to pick the little barbs out of him. "Well, it was fun," he said as they walked back. For week three of the gx challenge on LJ.


**Title:** Always Further Than You Think.  
**Author:** cheeky_eyes  
**Rating:** G  
**Pairings****/Characters:** Shou, Juudai  
**Warnings:** None  
**Word Count:** 1536  
**Notes: **Written in response to gx_challenge's week 3 prompt, bicycles. It's set during season one (which I have finally seen. ^_^ Or almost all of it. Anyway,) sometime before the Seven Starts arc. Or during. It doesn't really matter.

**xxx**

_They had a test coming up. True it was on Wednesday and it was only Saturday but they still had more productive things they could have been doing. Manjoume thought he was an idiot, but that wasn't exactly new. Shou was caught between despair for being the unintentional cause of it and the feeling of well-I-did-warn-you. Juudai hadn't been aware they even _were_ blackberry bushes on the island, a fact he was all too familiar with now as he tried to pick the little barbs out of him_.

"_Well, it was fun," he said as they walked back. _

**xxx**

'Hey I wonder what's in there," Juudai mused out loud as the passed an unfamiliar door on their way to the Osiris dining room. From the corner of his eye he saw Shou shrug next to him.

"I don't know," he said as they stopped. "It's near Daitokuji-sensei's room though, so maybe we should leave it alone Ani..." He trailed off as Juudai cautiously opened the door.

"Hey it's unlocked!" He said cheerfully as he pushed it open with more force and stepped inside.

"Aniki," Shou reprimanded as he followed him in. The room was dark and fairly dusty. It also wasn't well sealed as the voices of the other Osiris members could be heard clearly from the next room. A pile of cases were stacked neatly on one side and a collection of half broken junk on the other. Something in the middle of the pile caught Shou's attention and he reached forward to grab it as Juudai spoke up.

"Oh so this is where our cases went. I wondered about that." He hadn't, well no more than a passing thought at the start of term but it was one he remembered now none the less. Shou murmured his agreeance as he pulled a fairly decent bike out of the pile. It was one of the more better cared for items on its side of the room and seemed to be in alright shape. Before he could find out if it worked another voice interrupted him.

"Mrrow," a distinctly feline voice meowed from the door, followed quickly by its owner.

"Well that's a sight I'd thought I'd never see, nya. You two do realize you're late for lunch," Daitokuji said from the door as the two boys froze, before realising they hadn't actually done anything wrong and so couldn't be in trouble. Actually as Juudai calmed down he realised that he'd never heard Daitokuji tell anyone off in any other way but calmly and politely.

"So what are you doing in the store room, nya?" he finally asked after a moment or two had passed. Juudai considered it for a moment.

"Ah, exploring?" he finally offered as an excuse somewhat sheepishly. Shou mutely nodded; his hand and attention still on the bike.

"Well it is just a store room," Daitokuji said as he gestured to the room. "Half full of old broken junk, nya."

"What about this bike? What's wrong with it?" Shou gathered up his courage and asked. His teacher looked at it for a moment as he tried to recall what had happened to his old bike.

"There is something wrong with the gears, if I recall correctly, nya. You are welcome to try and fix it if you'd like," he answered. Shou grinned; he knew what he'd be doing that weekend.

**xxx**

Shou was interested in all kinds of machines, if his deck wasn't an indication of that. He wasn't the best at it but it was one of the things he was slightly better than his brother at, not that the opportunity to show it came up often. Some of the fondest memories of his childhood were of Ryo coming up to him and asking what did he think he should do to fix it. They had been very little then, but Shou was still proud of that achievement.

"So what's wrong with it?" Juudai asked casually as he lay back on the dirt where Shou was working on the bike.

"Nothing too drastic," Shou answered, most of his attention on the bike. He didn't sound very confident, but then any again he rarely did. Misawa was standing beside him, Shou had begged some tools off him, (or really the Ra dorm as Misawa had pointed that he didn't really use tools that often. It was more of a, 'what on earth would I need them for' but Shou got the point) and was ready to start. All that was wrong was some gears needed reorientating and tightening and it was good to go.

"So is it done yet?" Juudai asked impatiently as the other two ignored him. Hayato was sitting on the balcony watching, but had already declined a ride for when it was fixed. He wasn't that fond of bikes and had defiantly preferred to stay on the sidelines.

Once it was done they knew the perfect spot to test it out. The path to it was flat and fairly even, which would serve as the initial test, but at the end was the fun part as they came to a series of hills, which would not only be fun but really test the bike of its limits as it suddenly became rather steep. Naturally Juudai was claimed that part as his own. Manjoume had contested it, but when he saw he wasn't going to get his way he stormed off in a huff, claiming he never really wanted a turn anyway.

"Alright, "Shou finally chirped fifteen minutes later. "It's ready. Anyone want to try it out?" he asked nervously hoping that someone would. Juudai jumped up with a grin.

"Sure," he said as he picked up the helmet they had found on a later inspection of the room and put it on his head. The trial was a success as Juudai managed not to kill himself on the flat path so they set of inland, swapping riders every so often. Soon enough they came to the hill, or at least what Juudai had interpreted as the hill. Misawa hopped off the bike doubtfully as Juudai happily rushed forward to claim it. Shou looked down nervously. When he had said the hill this hadn't been what he'd meant.

"Ah Aniki, maybe you shouldn't go down that," he said. "The path goes the other way and I meant the hill of the volcano." He was right. The path did swing around the sharp incline, which was clear and flat enough for a bike to go down, but Shou wasn't sure how strong said bike was and it really did look dangerous. Juudai looked at the 'path' he had selected and laughed.

"It should be fine Shou. Looks like fun," he dismissed. Misawa didn't say anything, realising it was pointless to do so. It did meet up with the path again at the bottom and it wasn't too far down. So after a dramatic countdown Juudai pushed off and raced down the hill.

He realised his mistake half way down. While it had looked like fun to ride down, and it wasn't as dangerous as Shou had made it out to be, it was steep and there were hidden rocks in the way; which on a normal bike wouldn't be an issue. This one however was old, and Shou wasn't that strong, so when he went over on of them the bike failed and he came crashing to a stop. Luckily he had been near the bottom of the hill and was trying to slow down anyway so he immediately slammed the brakes on and came to a sudden stop. It wasn't sudden enough as in the final moment it veered to the right and crashed there. In the middle of a blackberry bush.

He wasn't going to lie, that did kind of hurt. A lot.

"Aniki!" he heard Shou cry from the top of he hill as Misawa frantically called, "are you ok?" He could only groan in response.

**xxx**

By the time they got back to the Osiris dorm Juudai had picked most of the barbs out of him. At least he hoped so. The bike itself surprisingly wasn't beyond repair, though Shou wasn't even going to attempt it for a while yet. It was dinner time by this stage so Misawa had gone back to his own dorm, having experience Osiris cuisine once he wasn't willing to brave that again for a while. Manjoume was on his way down when they met up with him.

"What happened to you?" he asked without much concern. Juudai sweatdropped.

"I rode into a blackberry bush. Did you know we had those on the island?" he said as Manjoume was suddenly grateful he'd stormed off as he saw the damaged bike.

"Juudai, are you ok nya?" Daitokuji exclaimed from behind them. Juudai grinned.

"Yeah. But it turns out the bike didn't like my hill," he replied airily. He turned back to Shou, an idea gleamed in his eyes.

Daitokuji took a look at the bike.

"I am so glad I didn't let you borrow mine, nya," he muttered to himself as Juudai proved to be alright and already planning their next ride.

"Ok, so the hill was a bad idea. But how about be ride around the hot springs…"


End file.
